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From: "JEH" <>
Subject: Re: [TMG] OT - Why Do Genealogy
Date: Thu, 11 Mar 2004 18:07:50 -0000
References: <144.23f9e8c8.2d81cba3@aol.com>


Dale

Its a nice story but I'm sorry to disagree.

Firstly science does not tell us that every part of our bodies and certainly
not our minds has been programmed from our genes. That ignores the nurture
side of the nature/nuture debate. For example there is now powerful evidence
that the nutrition of a pregnant woman can "program" the fetus and exert a
major influence on health in adult life inducing conditions such as heart
disease and diabetes.

Secondly you cannot be sure that your William Cash from the 1600s has
contributed any of your genetic makeup at all. Humans have 46 chromosomes
half of which are inherited from each parent. My 8G-grandfather Matthew
Dodsworth was born cir 1660. Since I have 1024 8g-grandfathers to contribute
the 46 chromosomes the chances are that none of them comes from Matthew. The
exception that I can argue for is my 8g-grandfather on the direct male line
since he must have contributed the X-chromosome that makes me a male.
However since I don't know who he is (and even if I did) I still cannot
exclude the "milkman" effect.

John Heckels

----- Original Message -----
From: <>
To: <>
Sent: Thursday, March 11, 2004 2:03 PM
Subject: Re: [TMG] OT - Why Do Genealogy


> Some years ago I put together a family type history for a grand daughter
and
> I wrote the following foreword to that book to try to explain why she
should
> have an interest in family.
>
> Science teaches us that every part of our bodies and minds has been
> programmed from the genes given to us by our parents at the moment of
conception. We
> are, in body and mind, the product of these genes. It is important to note
and
> remember that characteristics of our parents are not themselves inherited,
but
> that each of our parents gives us tiny physical bits of themselves, which
> carry the genes that determine our characteristics. These very real bits
of our
> parents, combine to form a single cell which then replicates to form all
the
> rest of the cells of our bodies. Thus, we grow to adults with every part
of us
> predetermined by these tiny physical pieces of our parents. Of course, the
> process follows that our parents are each the product of the genes given
to them by
> their parents and the process goes on back through the generations to
> whomever preceded each of us.
> Thus, you, Young Tyler, have in your body, not just inherited
> characteristics, but very real physical body parts, called genes, passed
to you from
> Charles Tyler, who lived in Virginia in the 1600s, from William Cash, who
came
> from Scotland to live in Virginia in the 1600s, from Peter Gottfried
Mueller, who
> was born in Solingen, Germany in 1758, from William Sorrell, born in 1730
in
> Virginia, Joseph Mellor from Yorkshire in England in the 1700s and many,
many
> others even more long ago. These people are never totally dead as a very
real
> part of them still exists in you.
> This book, by letting you get acquainted with some of the people who are
in
> it, hopefully may contribute in some small way in you getting to know
> yourself.
> Appreciate these people, each and every one of them, because they, in
sum,
> are you.- Dale
>
>
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